An article in the Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that Georgia ranks fourth in the country for high energy costs. Electric power rates for Georgia Power customers must be approved by the state’s Public Service Commission. Customers have an opportunity to share their ideas and concerns with the Commission before rates are set. The Commission also approves Power Purchase Agreements for Georgia Southern. Members of Washington EMC (and the majority of EMCS in our state) are not allowed to comment on power rates before they are set. If co-op member/owners raise objections to the rates they only place to voice those is with the EMC Boar which set the rates. The Public Service Commission has no oversight on our power bills. Continue reading “Georgia has 4th highest power rates in the country”→

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took a significant step forward Friday when it finalized long-delayed standards for coal ash. The new regulations establish some safeguards to detect and prevent releases of toxic waste from the nation’s more than 1400 coal ash waste dumps, most of which are currently leaking into water sources.

August 10, 2015
Last week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued long awaited Greenhouse Gas (GHG) rules for newly constructed power plants. The agency specifically addressed the proposed Plant Washington, and refused to give it a “pass” on carbon emission standards for new sources.
The new standards rely on partial capture and storage of carbon dioxide emissions. Plant Washington project spokesman Dean Alford has said that such a standard will result in cancellation of the coal-fired project because it was not designed to meet the standard. Continue reading “EPA says chances of Plant Washington ever operating are “remote””→

Yesterday articles in The Macon Telegraph and the Atlanta Journal Constitution covered the recently released Cobb EMC forensic audit. The Journal Constitution placed it as the lead article in yesterday’s paper.

The Atlanta paper’s article is behind a paid firewall and can’t be linked to here. However, the coverage points to a tangled web of favoritism that Brown used to move money from Cobb EMC to private businesses where he and Plant Washington developer Dean Alford had direct interests. The article includes the audit’s findings that Alford received $18Million from Cobb EMC and Cobb Energy when he worked there.

A forensic audit covering the time that Dwight Brown led Cobb EMC and Cobb Energy shines a bright light on some of the financial questions that surfaced before and after coal-fired Plant Washington was announced 8.5 years ago. Cobb EMC – like Washington EMC – was one of the original co-operatives that formed Power4Georgians, and has since been released from further obligations. Cobb Energy was a for profit company established in 1998 under Brown’s directive.